377.020.  Incorporation of companies, procedure. — 1.  Any number of persons, not less than seven, being citizens of the state of Missouri, may upon application to the circuit court of the county or city in which it is proposed to locate the chief offices or place of business, become a body politic or corporate under the name and style designated in the application, for the purpose of doing a life or casualty, or life and casualty insurance business on the assessment plan; said application shall in all cases be accompanied by the articles of association, or agreements, setting forth specifically the objects and purposes of the proposed corporation, as well as the methods and plans by which its business shall be conducted, and upon a hearing of the same, the court may grant or reject the application as it may deem best.

  2.  If the application is granted it shall be the duty of the applicant to cause a copy of said articles, with a copy of the decree of the court duly certified by the clerk thereof, and by him endorsed on or attached thereto, to be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in the county in which said corporation is located and then filed in the office of the secretary of state.

  3.  The secretary of state shall thereupon issue to the applicants aforesaid a certified copy of the said articles, with the several certificates thereon, as filed in his office, which certified copy shall be the charter of incorporation, and thereupon said applicants, their associates and successors, shall be created and be a body politic and corporate by the corporate name as aforesaid, and such charter, together with sections 377.010 to 377.190, shall be received in all courts and places as legal evidence of the incorporation of the said association, society or company; provided, that no decree shall be made, and no certificate of incorporation issued as aforesaid until the director of the department of commerce and insurance shall certify that the proposed name of the corporation is not the same and does not resemble the name of any other corporations authorized to do business in this state, to the extent of misleading the public, and further that the society, association or company seeking to be incorporated has secured applications for not less than one hundred thousand dollars insurance by not less than one hundred persons, and that thirty thousand dollars in cash or securities, approved by the director of the department of commerce and insurance has been deposited with the department of commerce and insurance, which fund shall be held in trust as a beneficiary fund by the said director of the department of commerce and insurance.  The term "casualty insurance" as used in sections 377.010 to 377.190, inclusive, shall be construed to mean only accident, health and hospitalization insurance.

  4.  After September 1, 1953, no insurance company as described herein may be incorporated to do business on the assessment plan under the provisions of sections 377.010 to 377.190.  This provision, however, shall not be construed as restricting or abridging in any manner the right to do business under the provisions of sections 377.010 to 377.190 of any insurance company now incorporated and licensed to do business in this state under the assessment plan.